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Just posting this to see if one, there is a need or want for it, and second, is it possible using v14 of TKL/TKLDev?

I think the cd root of TKLDev would need to be patched to have that enabled in the kernel. And I think the common TKL plan and scripts would need to include the needs packages and useful command line tools to monitor and notify the state of the raid.

I ask because I have had some clients that would like to run TKL on bare metal with software raid out of the box. Since I am the one that sets that up for them you can see why I posted!

I'll be willing to do the heavy lifting just need to point me down the right path. Even if it does not make it to v14 there is always 14.1 :-)

TBH I have never used software (aka "fake") RAID (actually I've never used RAID fullstop). I have heard multiple arguments for and against it. E.g. ProxmoxVE refuse to include/implement it and also refuse to provide any support to anyone who uses it as they believe it to be inadequate, unreliable and provides minimal benefit. OTOH I have heard many reports of people who use it and are very happy with it. IIRC Liraz uses it on his computer...

I have also heard horror stories about people who have used hardware RAID (as advocated by Proxmox devs as the superior and only reliable RAID option) and the problems that can be encountered if/when your (expensive) hardware RAID controller dies. That's because you need the same hardware controller to rebuild your array; whereas with software RAID it doesn't matter what hardware you have. So bottom line is it seems to be quite a contentious subject...!

So with that perspective in mind I'm not sure that we'd want to actually include it by default (I'd argue that inclusion is essentially endorsement). Regardless of that it would only make sense in the ISO builds (all other builds are for varying types of virtualisation) so even if it were included it would make sense to remove it for all other builds (in buildtasks).

However at the end of the day we want people to be free to use TurnKey as they desire. We also want to make it as easy as possible and as newb friendly as possible. So I think that at the least providing some info would be a great thing!

With all the above in mind my suggestion would be to A) simply document how to do it (you probably already know that the turnkey docs are a wiki that you can edit/add to - I'd suggest in the "how to/tutorial" section). And/or perhaps it would make a cool blog post?! And/or B) make a helper script that sets it up (and probably stick it in your github repo).

The only issue is that if you want to install it using softwareRAID then the installer needs to support it. It's some what a pain after the fact since you have to bassiclly create the RAID device, the move or copy the root file system to the new device, update your boot manager to point back to the new device. The di-live installer I think is built on a di that does not support softwareRAID. I just downloaded the current debian installer and you can setup a RAID volume.

I play around see if I can get a easy (as easy as it can be) to convert an ISO install to use softwareRAID.

Alon originally created di-live because default di didn't support running Live straight from the CD/DVD/ISO. Back then it was a pretty cool feature as Debian didn't support running live at all. We also wanted to trim it down as much as possible to make it really quick and easy to install.

Now that install to bare metal is less common and we have tons of different builds (that don't even include it) it's probably not as popular a feature as it once was. Also AFAIK di now supports running live too.

So with all that in mind we have intention to rebase back on the current di. However as it's not a hugely pressing issue it keeps getting pushed back in favour of more pressing matters...

In the meantime; IIRC (I read about converting an installed system to software raid many moons ago...) you should be able to create a script and/or cut&paste directions to do it fairly easily... If you script it perhaps stick it in your github account? I suggest that if you script it you could leverage inithooks to run stuff after reboots (as you need to IIRC).